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The Secret Policeman's Ball
The Secret Policeman's Ball is the name informally used for the long-running series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but later included leading musicians and actors. The series was created and developed by Monty Python member John Cleese, Peter Luff (Assistant Director Amnesty International 1974–1978) and entertainment industry executive Martin Lewis who subsequently worked with Peter Walker (Amnesty's Fund-Raising Officer from 1978). Cleese, Lewis and Luff worked together on the first two shows (1976 and 1977). After this, Cleese and Lewis worked on the next two shows (1979 and 1981) with Luff's replacement at Amnesty, Peter Walker – using the Secret Policeman's Ball title for the first time in 1979 and developing the series identity. Cleese credits Lewis with coining the Secret Policeman's Ball title. In an interview aired on BBC TV on 22 June 1979, Cleese told interviewer Michael Billington "It's Martin Lewis' title, I can pin that one on him. But I thought it was quite funny." Although the Secret Policeman's Ball title was not used until the third show in 1979, the two preceding shows in 1976 and 1977 were retrospectively treated as part of the Secret Policeman's canon. Cleese and Lewis subsequently worked individually on other Amnesty projects. Cleese made brief cameo appearances in the 1987 and 1989 shows and co-directed the latter. Lewis produced two American films drawn from the first four shows (released in the US in 1982 and 1983) and then helped expand the participation of rock musicians for Amnesty (that he first engendered in the 1979 and 1981 shows) with his contributions to the 1986 Conspiracy Of Hope US tour and the 1988 Human Rights Now! world tour. The first wave of shows took place approximately every other year, and three of the first four shows were filmed and released theatrically as movies with corresponding record albums. Because multi-artist benefit shows with contemporary performers were a new phenomenon in Britain in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, they were accorded considerable media coverage and public attention. After 1981, there was a six-year hiatus. When Amnesty International re-commenced staging benefit shows, it did so without the benefit of the Amnesty staff members and outside producers who had successfully guided the first wave of shows. The new team running Amnesty International re-commenced staging benefit shows in 1987, and the shows were on a noticeably smaller scale and consequently generated less media attention. The shows from 1987 onwards were videotaped to be shown as TV specials and/or released on home video in Britain rather than filmed as movies with prospects for international release. The sole exception to the smaller scale events was an ill-fated attempt in June 1988 to stage a weekend concert event titled "Amnesty International Festival Of Youth" at the 65,000 capacity Milton Keynes Bowl. The event was a massive failure and for the first time ever, one of Amnesty's fund-raising benefit events lost money. Only two more of Amnesty's benefit shows (in 1987 and 1989) carried a Secret Policeman's Ball-related title. Between 1991 and 2001 Amnesty staged four more benefit events and though they were comedy shows in the same vein as their predecessors, none of them carried the Secret Policeman's Ball title. When Amnesty staged a 40th anniversary show in 2001 it was stated that the Secret Policeman's Ball title had run its course and would not be revived. However, in October 2006, following a 17-year gap, the name was revived, and also used for shows in October 2008 and March 2012. The first four shows (1976–1981) and their spin-offs are credited by many prominent comedians, musicians, actors and producers with having galvanised them to become involved with Amnesty and other social and political causes in succeeding years. Rock stars Bob Geldof, Bono and Sting have all attributed their involvement in humanitarian issues to their exposure to the Secret Policeman's Ball shows: Geldof, Sting and Clapton as participants with Bono as an audience member. The earliest shows predated the proliferation of comedy and rock benefit shows that took place in the UK and US in the mid-1980s such as Live Aid, Farm Aid, Prince's Trust concerts, The Free Nelson Mandela Concert and Comic Relief. The Amnesty shows are considered to have been the pioneering charity events that helped inspire the later shows. Amnesty directly attributes the leaps in awareness of the human rights issue, the significant increases in its membership (especially among the young) and its dramatically increased fundraising achievements to the impact of the various shows, their spin-offs and successor Amnesty events such as the Conspiracy Of Hope and Human Rights Now! tours. Some of the films received international cinema release, and the soundtrack albums enjoyed commercial success worldwide, all of which generated considerable international awareness of the original shows, together with a growing grassroots awareness of Amnesty International and the human rights issue. Amnesty states that public awareness of Amnesty increased by 700 % between the first and third shows. Membership of the organisation increased exponentially. The films and records of the first three Amnesty benefit shows did not initially receive much exposure in the US, but this started to change in 1981–1982. The original British versions of the two Secret Policeman's Ball movies were presented at the 1981 and 1982 Filmex Los Angeles International Film Festival. Media coverage of the screenings in magazines such as Rolling Stone created awareness of the benefit shows. The album The Secret Policeman's Other Ball – The Music was released by Island Records/Warner Bros. Records in March 1982 and became a Top Thirty album in the Billboard charts. The third major element in bringing the Secret Policeman's Balls to the U.S. was the acquisition of the UK films by American distributors Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, founders of the independent distribution company Miramax Films. They had acquired the US rights to the film of the 1979 show The Secret Policeman's Ball and subsequently its successor The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. They determined that neither film would be successful in the American marketplace because some of the content was too parochial for American tastes. With Amnesty's blessing, they decided to combine the two films for the US. Original producer Martin Lewis distilled the best performances from both films into one new 110-minute film for the American market, with an opening sequence narrated by Saturday Night Live announcer Don Pardo. The new film premiered in New York in May 1982 as a fund-raiser for the U.S. section of Amnesty; it received enthusiastic reviews and went on to box office success. The film is recognised as Miramax's first hit. The American version of the film was released on home video by MGM-UA later in 1982. The US film (though drawn from the UK films of both the 1979 and 1981 shows) used as its title The Secret Policeman's Other Ball – a title that by May 1982 had some resonance in the US marketplace because of the success of the music soundtrack album and media coverage of the film festival screenings. In 1983, the Weinsteins and Lewis produced an 80-minute sequel TV special for HBO/Cinemax later released on home video by Media Home Entertainment titled The Secret Policeman's Private Parts. The program compiled material from the first two Amnesty shows (the 1976 and 1977 benefits) and the best of the content from the original 1979 and 1981 films that had not been used in the 1982 US version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball. In the early 1980s, Amnesty had a low profile in the US, and its Executive Director Jack Healey was looking for a way to raise the organisation's profile, especially among young people. In a 1986 profile in Rolling Stone Healey related how he decided to find out if the goodwill towards Amnesty of rock musicians that he had seen in the US version of The Secret Policeman's Other Ball could be put to service to help improve Amnesty's profile in America. Following the success of The Secret Policeman's Ball shows, there was a substantial increase in the number of benefit shows and charity projects in the UK in the early to mid-1980s – for a wide variety of causes. Many of the shows were modelled on the format of the Secret Policeman's Ball shows. At a certain point the media started to refer to a phenomenon described as "benefit fatigue" a term coined to describe the attitude towards the glut of benefit shows – many featuring the same group of performers – that were taking place each year. By 1982, Amnesty had lost the services of two key staff members, Peter Luff and Peter Walker, who had guided the first 4 benefit shows. The British Section of Amnesty responded to these two factors by taking a break from staging new benefit shows for six years. When it restarted the Secret Policeman's series in 1987 it scaled back from producing theatrical movies of its shows to making them into TV and home video specials. The Shows April 1-3, 1976 Her Majesty's Theatre, London, ENG (A Poke in the Eye (With a Sharp Stick) – the film version was titled Pleasure at Her Majesty's) May 8, 1977 Mermaid Theatre, London, ENG (An Evening Without Sir Bernard Miles – TV and album versions were titled The Mermaid Frolics) June 27-30, 1979 Her Majesty's Theatre, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Ball) September 9-12, 1981 Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Other Ball) March 26-29, 1987 London Palladium, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Third Ball) June 18-19, 1988 Milton Keynes Bowl, Milton Keynes, ENG (Amnesty International Festival Of Youth) August 30-September 2, 1989 Cambridge Theatre, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball) January 13, 20 & 27, 1991 Duke of York's Theatre, London, ENG (The Famous Compere’s Police Dog (Bites Back) - The TV version was titled Barf Bites Back) December 13 & 15, 1991 Central Independent Television Studios, Nottingham, ENG (The Big 3-0 (Amnesty's 30th Anniversary) February 2, 1997 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, IRE (So You Think You're Irish) February 1, 1998 Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, IRE (So You Think You're Irish 2) June 3, 2001 Wembley Arena, London, ENG (We Know Where You Live) October 14, 2006 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Ball 2006) October 4, 2008 Royal Albert Hall, London, ENG (The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008) March 4, 2012 Radio City Music Hall, New York City, NY (The Secret Policeman's Ball 2012)